KOCHI: Excise sleuths seized drugs worth Rs 83.5 lakh and arrested a man from Kochi. Saneesh Sarvothaman, a native of Kumbalam, landed in excise net after the sleuths intercepted his car near Kundannur junction on the national highway. The contraband seized from him included 11 grams of cocaine worth Rs 7 lakh, 47 grams of MDMA or ecstasy worth Rs. 25 lakh, three grams of MDMA liquid worth Rs 1.5 lakh and 805 grams of charass worth Rs 50 lakh.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused had brought the contraband from Goa. He used to target party-goers in the city.

“The liquid MDMA is commonly used by party-goers. The high can last up to six hours. They are high-end drugs, and peddlers target financially well-off persons,” said an Excise official.

During an examination later, the sleuths recovered an electronic weighing machine from Saneesh’s car.

He told them that he had used the machine to measure the drug in milligrams along with small pods while retailing it.

According to officials, the seized MDMA is of commercial quantity, and the accused can get a minimum jail term of 10 years. They said the other drugs were in the intermediary quantity level. Saneesh was booked under the NDPS Act and was sent to judicial custody. Meanwhile, the investigation also shed light on rave parties held in cruise vessels off the Kochi coast. “The clients of the accused include those attending cruise parties, organised on the lines of those in Goa. We, however, have not been able to take action as they [parties] take place on vessels anchored off the coast, said a senior Excise Department official.